The Order of the Key Island (Sept-13)
After finally gaining the trust, more or less, of the people here, we went into the tower where lots of skeletons were waiting. We chose to go upstairs first. The second floor was largely empty. The third and fourth floors had scattered undead around, but none were moving, and there was little of interest there. The fifth floor was the living quarters of a single leader type, but he wasn't to be found. He was found on the sixth floor, an open room with a central table covered in documents, books, and charts, etc and 4 fancy telescopes pointing out 4 different directions. The leader, a skeleton in nicer silk clothes, was looking out one of the telescopes and ignoring us. Zephyr began reading through the documents on the table and Mojo began looking out a telescope. When Mojo began adjusting the telescope, the Leader walked over to him and began showing him how the telescope worked, using gestures. Meanwhile Basil and Zephyr recognized that the writing was all about astronomy and timing the signs of some upcoming event. We eventually told the leader our story, and he let us know that we are one of the signs of the upcoming "Return of Honne" event, though he was somehow magically unable to tell us all he knew.
While the rest were conversing, the Hunter looked out the Leader's telescope to see what he had been looking at. She saw a group of 30ish militia at two campfires and a group of 5 (4 masked) leaders at another campfire with our carriage. At night she couldn't see the colors well, but assumed they were people from the orders. Later, once the gnome mentioned it, she realized she had low light vision and could see pretty well after all. Three were reds, one (unmasked) was blue, and one, the supreme leader, was wearing leather without insignia. Casting Detect Magic and Detect Evil let us know that the head (uncolored one) was evil, the blue priest, and the medium red were evil as well. The 2 lower reds were not evil or not enough to be detected and the militia were the usual mix of any human group. The blue radiated medium level divine magic, while the 3 reds radiated arcane, the leader had medium magic, the lowbies had minor magic. The uncolored had medium arcane magic as well. None of the militia had magical ability.
(Theory: the reds choose out any children with magic potential for incorporation and indoctrination into the orders.)
After a flurry of discussion and more info gathering from the red and blue here, we decided not to attack. Patrols such as this appear occasionally, and leave again regularly. This one is twice the usual size, but even so, the militia are just townspeople. We decided to head downstairs and found a huge room with about 30 small boats, each capable of holding a dozen or so people. There were also hundreds of skellies here just standing in formation: archers, pikemen, etc. A few skellies were maintaining the boats. A door on the back wall led to a pool and a cave exit onto the lake. We decided to bug out taking a boat; we'd leave as soon as the tide had dropped low enough to clear the cave entrance. Just as we were about to leave, the Leader came down from the top level and let us know we couldn't take a boat. HMMM!!!
More discussion and we decided to head out and meet the posse. We drilled our cover story into the acolyte, ferried ourselves back to the town, picked up the horse, and headed back towards the carriage. Their patrols quickly found us and took us to their camp. The acolyte bluffed quite well (KEY: have Jeff roll for the acolyte). Zephyr talked back to them and got a lecture from the blue priest about understanding one's place in the world and how Predallen works. Startled by Zephyr's question if the other leader was a White, he admitted it, speaking in fear and respect and told me to be extra careful. Feyren, meanwhile, challenged the white indirectly, asking the acolyte why he was putting up with their questioning as we had done nothing wrong, and especially from the [colorless] SLAVE of the Reds. That got him hot and bothered, but he finished with the statement that he would find out from the House of the Two Doves the truth of this whole matter, and that we were clearly not what we were pretending to be. With that, however, we were free to go.
Heading North: Meeting the Reds (Sept 27)
We headed north through rural territory, seeing scattered hills, farms, etc. A peasant girl was unafraid to approach such a group as we are to talk a bit, but was careful enough not to say much. Yes, the orders control the countryside effectively, which was my real question anyway. A bit further on we heard a woman sobbing uncontrollably. We found out her daughter had been taken by some reds. We got their direction and description and set off. A party of about a dozen on foot with donkeys (and bells, kidnapping is a festive occasion) heading north like we were. The two rangers took off to find them leaving markers for the carriage and rest to catch up. We passed another tiny group of farms with Plague flags hanging from the windows. We approached to heal them and found it was a farce to keep the Reds away. We moved on, but only after one simpleton let us know a resistance exists in the area around here.
The Reds stopped at a tiny cabin in a small woods beside the road. The Hunter moved in to scout while Mojo waited for the rest of the party. Four reds and the two abducted kids were in the cabin while the other 10 reds were outside. After setting up tarps against the rain, 6 sat around while 4 patrolled the camp. The Hunter watched for about 90 minutes until the party arrived, rode by, and stopped 30 minutes further down the road. There, after a long and somewhat heated discussion, the party barely decided to not attack and to go forward with the larger goal of stopping the sacrifices at Honne's temple. The simpleton farmer caught up with us to join and help us, but Mojo let him know he wasn't welcome. We rode on. We learned of a Red Fort to the north in a mountain pass.
The next day we rode past over 200 Reds. They had set up an encampment along the road, we supposed as a gathering spot for the smaller parties. We saw a dozen or more captive kids being settled down and kept entertained. The Reds are quite organized and militarily professional. Something else was happening in a clearing, perhaps magical, but it was too far away to see for sure what it was. We thought with 200 Reds here, their fort may be largely unguarded. We hurried north to find out.
That night put us at an inn beside a bridge. The bridge had been damaged in a flash flood, so no traffic was getting across. Lots of people were sitting around bored. Some, egged on by Ace, talked about further sabotaging the bridge, but eventually did nothing. Thinking it might slow down the Reds, the Hunter went out and did it alone. She caused enough damage to add a day to the repairs, but the bridge didn't come down.
The next day Clopid saw another gnome scurry around a corner. He followed and only found someone determined to make him go away. After various attempts to find what was going on, Basil saw someone enter a secret door in the side of the inn. Plans to do more were postponed as the excess of food had caused a wave of drowsiness to sweep through the party.
Vive Le Ristance (Oct 11)
We were still stuck at the Inn waiting for the bridge to be fixed. Our attempts to speed things up by magically mending the ropes were met with disgust from the union workers. The offer was met with "You want to take food out of our children's mouths?" and "Thay're tryin to terk er jobs!" so we walked away. In the mean time, with Mojo faking a sissy-fight with Heydon as cover, Clopid managed to finally figure out how to open the secret door at the side of the building and once open half the group rushed in, only to stumble down the hole. Almost literally. There was a main room with a few tunnels leading out, all about 4' high splitting into various directions. One way ended in 3 normal sized rooms containing weaponry and provisions (including a bar with beer!). Straight out toward the river was a series of dead-end spurs. The left path went straight out to 2 gnomes digging. Clopid brought the startled gnomes a couple of beers, to say "Hi" and asked them to join us at the bar. There they admitted being in the Hanne resistance and wanted us to meet with the brass since they were little nobodies, including the inkeeper.
That evening there was a general meeting of the local resistance with their leader known only as The General, but we became the topic du jour. We told them part of our true story and The General grilled us on details about the ship. It was obvious he used to be a sailor and may have been associated with the pirates. We left out the time on the islands and the Gremlin and told them our story of being bought by the 2 swans was a ruse. The acolyte was not present. We said he was with us under duress and was starting to come around but couldn't be totally trusted yet. They believed us enough to give us some info on them. The digging served a couple purposes. It was a meeting place for the group, they were looking for some lost sewers that connected the river to the next town half a day down the road, and they were digging an escape tunnel just in case. They decided we could be trusted if we passed a test. In the next town was a red who was way out of line taking kids for "personal use". It was bad enough that the whites would be "correcting" him soon but it will be a good message if the resistance got to him first. They wanted a public killing. They arranged for the union to look the other way as we took off. The carriage is gone - we gave the chit to the Inn keeper to collect the deposit in exchange for a mule and some provisions.
We also asked about the rumors of a high level red defecting. He pointed at a guy in the corner and said ask him yourself. The indeed is a defective red in the area. He was medium level management like Captain level named Pastor Arnold. Typical story - was sent to a location out here and saw what was really happening how the order was perverted and decided to drop out. Normally only about 40 reds come out for these reaping trips. Having a few hundred out is because of him. We asked him about the value of wrecking the "temple" in the pass and he said it would send a message but in the long run wouldn't accomplish much. However, if someone was going to do something like that now would be the chance. Most of the garrison was out looking for him although the supernatural creatures would still be there. Better yet would be to hit the village outside the keep where the ~100 kids were being "educated". The group passed around the possibility of freeing 100 children held captive and if the resistance could return them to their families if they were freed. We said our plan was to investigate doing that. They said that if the town red appropriately killed/displayed they would try to assist us if we could free the kids. No details were set. He also gave us more info on the sacrifices. There is a fanatical Tatume group conducting them that are not part of an order. They happen monthly at the respective temples. The orders aren't thrilled with what they are doing but not enough to put a stop to it.
The town was half a day down the road. We got there a couple hours before dusk and made for an Inn on the far side of the city with a "we're just passing through" story. The location of the red was the other side of town. He owned a pawn shop by the docks. Saffron went in to "shop", casing the joint. It was fairly busy with a guard dog in the corner and lots of shelves and stuff on display - nothing fancy. He was a pretty big dude. Walked around armed and there was a little area in the back with a table and stairs going up to his personal quarters. We decided on a blitzkrieg approach - a group heads in right before the store is set to close and jump him. Despite some dramatics it came off well. 6 of us tried to enter in a rush claiming we had stuff to sell for drinking money with the rest of the group stationed around the area as lookouts. He would only let 3 people in at a time so we protested and made noise at the door while the other 3 scattered about the place. He and the dog went on alert but were pulled in opposite directions. The druid tried to friend the dog but the spell failed and the dog attacked him. The red ran over trying to figure out what happened and we were on. A silence spell was dropped and we all rushed in. Clopid was able to live the dream with a max damage back attack, but he then realized he faced the fighter alone. But a well time hold spell from Zephyr (?) saved the day, and soon his head was rolling on the floor. The dog was the bigger hassle and we had to kill it. Searching the whole place we found a little cellar with a torture chamber and a chest containing all of his red robes. The first chest was trapped, but Ogrel easily... set it off and knocked out everyone in the room. Then the second chest... oh crap, again with the sleep spell! The thief need to work on removing traps. Luckily tho, there were enough of us outside the room to make it no big deal.
We rigged up the body of the evil Red shop owner in the robes, hung it, headless, off the 2nd story balcony, and drifted away in groups back to the Inn. The Gnome threw up a pyro display to attract the people partying across the street to the display and then spent the night spreading rumors. We safely left the next morning with the buzz going around the town.
We headed toward the red temple. It's a day off the main road to a small keep. We found a place to stay claiming our mule threw a shoe and needs a refit. We received a message to meet someone someplace that we assume if the resistance to thank us for a job well done. Or it's the Reds going to "thank" us. We'll find out next time.
[Post game thought - assuming we do free the kids we cannot assume they will all be cooperative. Some of them may have been there long enough to be turned. Also, if we free them we will also be setting free 100 people who can ID us to the authorities
DR Note: Agree very much. Its going to be very much like herding cats unless we have some leverage to get them to cooperate. Group must also agree that if task is too big to handle, we abort, says Ace quietly.]
After finally gaining the trust, more or less, of the people here, we went into the tower where lots of skeletons were waiting. We chose to go upstairs first. The second floor was largely empty. The third and fourth floors had scattered undead around, but none were moving, and there was little of interest there. The fifth floor was the living quarters of a single leader type, but he wasn't to be found. He was found on the sixth floor, an open room with a central table covered in documents, books, and charts, etc and 4 fancy telescopes pointing out 4 different directions. The leader, a skeleton in nicer silk clothes, was looking out one of the telescopes and ignoring us. Zephyr began reading through the documents on the table and Mojo began looking out a telescope. When Mojo began adjusting the telescope, the Leader walked over to him and began showing him how the telescope worked, using gestures. Meanwhile Basil and Zephyr recognized that the writing was all about astronomy and timing the signs of some upcoming event. We eventually told the leader our story, and he let us know that we are one of the signs of the upcoming "Return of Honne" event, though he was somehow magically unable to tell us all he knew.
While the rest were conversing, the Hunter looked out the Leader's telescope to see what he had been looking at. She saw a group of 30ish militia at two campfires and a group of 5 (4 masked) leaders at another campfire with our carriage. At night she couldn't see the colors well, but assumed they were people from the orders. Later, once the gnome mentioned it, she realized she had low light vision and could see pretty well after all. Three were reds, one (unmasked) was blue, and one, the supreme leader, was wearing leather without insignia. Casting Detect Magic and Detect Evil let us know that the head (uncolored one) was evil, the blue priest, and the medium red were evil as well. The 2 lower reds were not evil or not enough to be detected and the militia were the usual mix of any human group. The blue radiated medium level divine magic, while the 3 reds radiated arcane, the leader had medium magic, the lowbies had minor magic. The uncolored had medium arcane magic as well. None of the militia had magical ability.
(Theory: the reds choose out any children with magic potential for incorporation and indoctrination into the orders.)
After a flurry of discussion and more info gathering from the red and blue here, we decided not to attack. Patrols such as this appear occasionally, and leave again regularly. This one is twice the usual size, but even so, the militia are just townspeople. We decided to head downstairs and found a huge room with about 30 small boats, each capable of holding a dozen or so people. There were also hundreds of skellies here just standing in formation: archers, pikemen, etc. A few skellies were maintaining the boats. A door on the back wall led to a pool and a cave exit onto the lake. We decided to bug out taking a boat; we'd leave as soon as the tide had dropped low enough to clear the cave entrance. Just as we were about to leave, the Leader came down from the top level and let us know we couldn't take a boat. HMMM!!!
More discussion and we decided to head out and meet the posse. We drilled our cover story into the acolyte, ferried ourselves back to the town, picked up the horse, and headed back towards the carriage. Their patrols quickly found us and took us to their camp. The acolyte bluffed quite well (KEY: have Jeff roll for the acolyte). Zephyr talked back to them and got a lecture from the blue priest about understanding one's place in the world and how Predallen works. Startled by Zephyr's question if the other leader was a White, he admitted it, speaking in fear and respect and told me to be extra careful. Feyren, meanwhile, challenged the white indirectly, asking the acolyte why he was putting up with their questioning as we had done nothing wrong, and especially from the [colorless] SLAVE of the Reds. That got him hot and bothered, but he finished with the statement that he would find out from the House of the Two Doves the truth of this whole matter, and that we were clearly not what we were pretending to be. With that, however, we were free to go.
Heading North: Meeting the Reds (Sept 27)
We headed north through rural territory, seeing scattered hills, farms, etc. A peasant girl was unafraid to approach such a group as we are to talk a bit, but was careful enough not to say much. Yes, the orders control the countryside effectively, which was my real question anyway. A bit further on we heard a woman sobbing uncontrollably. We found out her daughter had been taken by some reds. We got their direction and description and set off. A party of about a dozen on foot with donkeys (and bells, kidnapping is a festive occasion) heading north like we were. The two rangers took off to find them leaving markers for the carriage and rest to catch up. We passed another tiny group of farms with Plague flags hanging from the windows. We approached to heal them and found it was a farce to keep the Reds away. We moved on, but only after one simpleton let us know a resistance exists in the area around here.
The Reds stopped at a tiny cabin in a small woods beside the road. The Hunter moved in to scout while Mojo waited for the rest of the party. Four reds and the two abducted kids were in the cabin while the other 10 reds were outside. After setting up tarps against the rain, 6 sat around while 4 patrolled the camp. The Hunter watched for about 90 minutes until the party arrived, rode by, and stopped 30 minutes further down the road. There, after a long and somewhat heated discussion, the party barely decided to not attack and to go forward with the larger goal of stopping the sacrifices at Honne's temple. The simpleton farmer caught up with us to join and help us, but Mojo let him know he wasn't welcome. We rode on. We learned of a Red Fort to the north in a mountain pass.
The next day we rode past over 200 Reds. They had set up an encampment along the road, we supposed as a gathering spot for the smaller parties. We saw a dozen or more captive kids being settled down and kept entertained. The Reds are quite organized and militarily professional. Something else was happening in a clearing, perhaps magical, but it was too far away to see for sure what it was. We thought with 200 Reds here, their fort may be largely unguarded. We hurried north to find out.
That night put us at an inn beside a bridge. The bridge had been damaged in a flash flood, so no traffic was getting across. Lots of people were sitting around bored. Some, egged on by Ace, talked about further sabotaging the bridge, but eventually did nothing. Thinking it might slow down the Reds, the Hunter went out and did it alone. She caused enough damage to add a day to the repairs, but the bridge didn't come down.
The next day Clopid saw another gnome scurry around a corner. He followed and only found someone determined to make him go away. After various attempts to find what was going on, Basil saw someone enter a secret door in the side of the inn. Plans to do more were postponed as the excess of food had caused a wave of drowsiness to sweep through the party.
Vive Le Ristance (Oct 11)
We were still stuck at the Inn waiting for the bridge to be fixed. Our attempts to speed things up by magically mending the ropes were met with disgust from the union workers. The offer was met with "You want to take food out of our children's mouths?" and "Thay're tryin to terk er jobs!" so we walked away. In the mean time, with Mojo faking a sissy-fight with Heydon as cover, Clopid managed to finally figure out how to open the secret door at the side of the building and once open half the group rushed in, only to stumble down the hole. Almost literally. There was a main room with a few tunnels leading out, all about 4' high splitting into various directions. One way ended in 3 normal sized rooms containing weaponry and provisions (including a bar with beer!). Straight out toward the river was a series of dead-end spurs. The left path went straight out to 2 gnomes digging. Clopid brought the startled gnomes a couple of beers, to say "Hi" and asked them to join us at the bar. There they admitted being in the Hanne resistance and wanted us to meet with the brass since they were little nobodies, including the inkeeper.
That evening there was a general meeting of the local resistance with their leader known only as The General, but we became the topic du jour. We told them part of our true story and The General grilled us on details about the ship. It was obvious he used to be a sailor and may have been associated with the pirates. We left out the time on the islands and the Gremlin and told them our story of being bought by the 2 swans was a ruse. The acolyte was not present. We said he was with us under duress and was starting to come around but couldn't be totally trusted yet. They believed us enough to give us some info on them. The digging served a couple purposes. It was a meeting place for the group, they were looking for some lost sewers that connected the river to the next town half a day down the road, and they were digging an escape tunnel just in case. They decided we could be trusted if we passed a test. In the next town was a red who was way out of line taking kids for "personal use". It was bad enough that the whites would be "correcting" him soon but it will be a good message if the resistance got to him first. They wanted a public killing. They arranged for the union to look the other way as we took off. The carriage is gone - we gave the chit to the Inn keeper to collect the deposit in exchange for a mule and some provisions.
We also asked about the rumors of a high level red defecting. He pointed at a guy in the corner and said ask him yourself. The indeed is a defective red in the area. He was medium level management like Captain level named Pastor Arnold. Typical story - was sent to a location out here and saw what was really happening how the order was perverted and decided to drop out. Normally only about 40 reds come out for these reaping trips. Having a few hundred out is because of him. We asked him about the value of wrecking the "temple" in the pass and he said it would send a message but in the long run wouldn't accomplish much. However, if someone was going to do something like that now would be the chance. Most of the garrison was out looking for him although the supernatural creatures would still be there. Better yet would be to hit the village outside the keep where the ~100 kids were being "educated". The group passed around the possibility of freeing 100 children held captive and if the resistance could return them to their families if they were freed. We said our plan was to investigate doing that. They said that if the town red appropriately killed/displayed they would try to assist us if we could free the kids. No details were set. He also gave us more info on the sacrifices. There is a fanatical Tatume group conducting them that are not part of an order. They happen monthly at the respective temples. The orders aren't thrilled with what they are doing but not enough to put a stop to it.
The town was half a day down the road. We got there a couple hours before dusk and made for an Inn on the far side of the city with a "we're just passing through" story. The location of the red was the other side of town. He owned a pawn shop by the docks. Saffron went in to "shop", casing the joint. It was fairly busy with a guard dog in the corner and lots of shelves and stuff on display - nothing fancy. He was a pretty big dude. Walked around armed and there was a little area in the back with a table and stairs going up to his personal quarters. We decided on a blitzkrieg approach - a group heads in right before the store is set to close and jump him. Despite some dramatics it came off well. 6 of us tried to enter in a rush claiming we had stuff to sell for drinking money with the rest of the group stationed around the area as lookouts. He would only let 3 people in at a time so we protested and made noise at the door while the other 3 scattered about the place. He and the dog went on alert but were pulled in opposite directions. The druid tried to friend the dog but the spell failed and the dog attacked him. The red ran over trying to figure out what happened and we were on. A silence spell was dropped and we all rushed in. Clopid was able to live the dream with a max damage back attack, but he then realized he faced the fighter alone. But a well time hold spell from Zephyr (?) saved the day, and soon his head was rolling on the floor. The dog was the bigger hassle and we had to kill it. Searching the whole place we found a little cellar with a torture chamber and a chest containing all of his red robes. The first chest was trapped, but Ogrel easily... set it off and knocked out everyone in the room. Then the second chest... oh crap, again with the sleep spell! The thief need to work on removing traps. Luckily tho, there were enough of us outside the room to make it no big deal.
We rigged up the body of the evil Red shop owner in the robes, hung it, headless, off the 2nd story balcony, and drifted away in groups back to the Inn. The Gnome threw up a pyro display to attract the people partying across the street to the display and then spent the night spreading rumors. We safely left the next morning with the buzz going around the town.
We headed toward the red temple. It's a day off the main road to a small keep. We found a place to stay claiming our mule threw a shoe and needs a refit. We received a message to meet someone someplace that we assume if the resistance to thank us for a job well done. Or it's the Reds going to "thank" us. We'll find out next time.
[Post game thought - assuming we do free the kids we cannot assume they will all be cooperative. Some of them may have been there long enough to be turned. Also, if we free them we will also be setting free 100 people who can ID us to the authorities
DR Note: Agree very much. Its going to be very much like herding cats unless we have some leverage to get them to cooperate. Group must also agree that if task is too big to handle, we abort, says Ace quietly.]